JP2006019552A - Plasma processing apparatus and manufacturing method of semiconductor device using the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide plasma processing apparatus where particles are reduced simultaneously, while controlling the flow of reactant gas, and to provide a manufacturing method of a semiconductor device that uses the same. <P>SOLUTION: In a chamber 101, the plasma processing apparatus is provided with a shower head 104, an exhaustion distribution means 106, an inert gas inlet port 107 and a branch line 109 provided with a means for reactant gas supply and evacuation. At the same time of normal discharge work stoppage, an inert gas is introduced through the 107, the 106 is made to operate, and an evacuation path, consisting of the shower head 104, the branch line 109, and the exhaustion distribution means 106 are provided. Accompanying discharging of the inert gas from the chamber 101, the particles existing above the upper substrate 102 are discharged from the shower head 104 to reduce particles stuck to the substrate. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a single wafer plasma processing apparatus and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device using the same.

  In recent years, with the miniaturization of semiconductor devices, the processing accuracy required in each manufacturing process has become stricter year by year. In addition to improving the basic processing characteristics of a manufacturing apparatus, it is becoming difficult to continuously produce a stable device with a high yield without reducing particles generated in the apparatus.

  Conventionally, in order to reduce particles, for example, there is a CVD apparatus as disclosed in Patent Document 1. FIG. 4 shows a configuration diagram of a conventional CVD apparatus.

In FIG. 4, since the reaction gas exhaust port 6 is disposed on the outer periphery of the substrate 2 on the substrate support 3, the gas supplied from the gas supply port 5 diffuses into the chamber 1 after flowing on the surface of the substrate 2. In this configuration, the air is exhausted through the exhaust port 6.
JP-A-6-295871

  However, since the exhaust port 6 is unevenly distributed in the vicinity of the periphery of the substrate 2 in the conventional configuration, the degree of freedom in setting the processing conditions of the manufacturing apparatus for obtaining desired processing characteristics may be reduced. was there. In addition, the above conventional example is an example of a CVD apparatus. For example, when it is developed in a dry etching or plasma CVD apparatus that generates plasma and performs a discharge process, the gas flow is disturbed and the plasma is not uniform. Although the particles can be reduced, the processing characteristics may be deteriorated.

  In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a plasma processing apparatus capable of controlling the flow of a reactive gas and simultaneously reducing particles, and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device using the plasma processing apparatus.

  In order to solve the above problems, a plasma processing apparatus of the present invention includes a processing chamber for discharging a substrate, an exhaust port for evacuating the processing chamber, and a shower head for supplying a reactive gas to the substrate. In addition to the exhaust port, the substrate processing apparatus includes means for evacuating the shower head.

  It is preferable that the shower head is a single structure, and includes a portion for evacuating and a portion for supplying a gas, which are separated from each other.

  More preferably, an inert gas inlet is provided in the periphery of the substrate in the processing chamber.

  Further, the method for manufacturing a semiconductor device of the present invention includes a step of installing a substrate at a predetermined position in a processing chamber, and a vacuum from the exhaust port to the processing chamber, and then a shower head provided on the semiconductor substrate. A step of adjusting the inside of the processing chamber to a predetermined pressure while introducing a reaction gas; and an electric field is applied between an upper electrode and a lower electrode installed above and below the semiconductor substrate to generate plasma, and the semiconductor substrate A predetermined process by exposing the plasma to the plasma, and after the completion of the processing process, the supply of the reaction gas and the application of the electric field are stopped, and vacuum exhaust means provided in the exhaust port and the shower head are used. Evacuating the processing chamber.

  In the step of evacuating the processing chamber from the vacuum exhaust means provided in the exhaust port and the shower head, it is preferable that an inert gas is simultaneously supplied from the shower head.

  More preferably, the processing step is either dry etching or thin film deposition.

  According to the present invention, since the exhaust gas is exhausted from the shower head while the inert gas is introduced during the time when the substrate is not subjected to the discharge treatment, a desired processing characteristic can be obtained during the normal substrate processing in the substrate processing apparatus, and the substrate processing is not performed. In time, particles adhering to the substrate can be reduced.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a single wafer dry etching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

  101 is a chamber in which the substrate is subjected to discharge treatment under reduced pressure, 102 is a substrate, 103 is a lower electrode having a mechanism for holding the substrate, 104 is a shower head equipped with gas introduction and evacuation means, 105 is an exhaust port, and 106 is a shower Exhaust distribution means 107 that can arbitrarily distribute the vacuum exhaust capability of the head 104 and the exhaust port 105, 107 is an inert gas introduction port installed on the side surface of the chamber 101 radially from the six directions toward the center of the substrate 102, and 108 is a shower A reactive gas introduction pipe 109 connected to the head 104 is a branch pipe branched from the exhaust port 105 via the exhaust distribution means 106 and connected to the shower head 104.

  2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the shower head of the single-wafer dry etching apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 (a) is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the shower head, and FIG. It is a figure which shows the surface structure of a shower head.

  Conventionally, a shower head of a substrate processing apparatus is generally arranged for the purpose of supplying a reaction gas, but in the present embodiment, the shower head 104 is configured to have a vacuum exhaust means.

  As shown in FIG. 2A, the interior of the shower head 104 is divided into a vacuum exhaust region (hatched portion) and a gas supply region (unhatched portion) by a partition 112 installed in a cross shape. . On the other hand, on the surface of the shower head 104, as shown in FIG. 2 (b), a gas introduction hole 113 is disposed on the evacuation region and an evacuation hole 114 is disposed on the evacuation region of the surface facing the substrate. Has been.

  FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of the shower head in the embodiment of the present invention. The two regions in the shower head 104 are separated by a partition 112 and are connected to a branch pipe 109 and a reaction gas introduction pipe 108 at the upper part, respectively, so that vacuum exhaust and gas supply can be independently performed. .

  Next, a substrate processing process using the dry etching apparatus in this embodiment will be described.

  First, the silicon substrate 102 is transferred onto the lower electrode 103 using a transfer mechanism (not shown).

  After the inside of the chamber 101 is evacuated from the exhaust port 105, a reaction gas is introduced from the shower head 104 and the exhaust amount from the exhaust port 105 is adjusted so that the inside of the chamber 101 has a predetermined pressure. Next, an electric field is applied between an upper electrode (not shown) and the lower electrode 103 to start discharge. The silicon substrate 102 is exposed to the plasma generated in this manner, and the silicon substrate 102 or the material formed on the substrate is etched, whereby predetermined processing is performed.

  In addition, the arrow line 110 has shown the flow of the reactive gas.

When the predetermined processing is completed, the introduction of the reaction gas from the shower head 104 is stopped, the discharge is stopped, and at the same time, an inert gas such as N _{2 is} introduced from the inert gas inlet 107. An arrow 111 indicates the flow of the inert gas.

  On the other hand, the exhaust distribution means 106 is operated simultaneously with the introduction of the inert gas, and exhaust is performed for a certain period of time using the normal exhaust port 105 and the branch pipe 109 attached to the shower head 104. At this time, the exhaust capacity from the exhaust port 105 and the exhaust capacity from the branch pipe 109 are respectively adjusted by the exhaust distribution means 106.

  Thereafter, the introduction of the inert gas from the inert gas inlet 107 is stopped, and evacuation is performed again in preparation for the next substrate processing. Here, the exhaust distribution means 106 is returned to the initial state, and the vacuum exhaust path from the branch pipe 109 is shut off.

  Thereafter, the processed silicon substrate 102 is unloaded by the transfer mechanism and the next substrate is loaded. The above is a series of operations for substrate processing related to the etching apparatus.

  In the above, until the reaction gas is sufficiently evacuated from the chamber 101 after the discharge treatment, particles staying on the substrate 102 are exhausted from the shower head 104 together with the inert gas through the branch pipe 109 and attached to the substrate 102. Reduce particles.

  Further, since the exhaust from the shower head 104 is performed during a time when the substrate is not subjected to the discharge treatment, the machining conditions during the electric discharge machining can be freely set, and there is no adverse effect on the machining characteristics.

  Note that the configuration of the shower head 104 is shown in FIG. 2 because it is important that the evacuation and gas supply regions are independent and the evacuation and gas supply operations are efficiently performed in the space on the substrate 102. However, it is possible to divide into concentric circles or double spirals.

  In this embodiment, the case where the vacuum is exhausted from the shower head 104 after the substrate processing has been described. However, the effect of reducing the particles is the time until the substrate transfer is finished and the introduction of the reaction gas is started in the next substrate processing. Is effective even if it is used together before and after the discharge.

  In this embodiment, a silicon substrate is used. However, a compound semiconductor substrate or other substrate such as a sapphire substrate or a glass substrate may be used.

  In this embodiment, the dry etching apparatus is described as an example. However, the present invention can be similarly applied to another plasma processing apparatus having a similar processing chamber configuration, such as a plasma CVD apparatus.

  The plasma processing apparatus according to the present invention is particularly useful as an apparatus for manufacturing a semiconductor device having a large area and a fine pattern.

1 is a configuration diagram of a single wafer dry etching apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the structure of the shower head of the single-wafer | sheet-fed dry etching apparatus in embodiment of this invention, (a) is a figure which shows the internal structure of a shower head, (b) is a figure which shows the surface structure of a shower head. The perspective view of the shower head in embodiment of this invention Configuration diagram of conventional CVD equipment

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Chamber 2 Substrate 3 Substrate support 4 Substrate heating device 5 Gas supply port 6 Exhaust port 101 Chamber 102 Silicon substrate 103 Lower electrode 104 Shower head 105 Exhaust port 106 Exhaust distribution means 107 Inert gas introduction port 108 Reactive gas introduction pipe 109 Branch Piping

Claims (6)

A processing chamber for discharging the substrate;
An exhaust port for evacuating the processing chamber;
A substrate processing apparatus comprising a shower head for supplying a reaction gas to the substrate, wherein the plasma processing apparatus comprises means for evacuating the shower head in addition to the exhaust port. . The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shower head is a single structure, and includes a portion for evacuating and a portion for supplying a gas, and the two are separated from each other. . The plasma processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein an inert gas inlet is provided in a peripheral portion of the substrate in the processing chamber. Installing the semiconductor substrate at a predetermined position in the processing chamber;
After evacuating the processing chamber from an exhaust port, adjusting the processing chamber to a predetermined pressure while introducing a reactive gas from a shower head provided on the semiconductor substrate;
A step of generating a plasma by applying an electric field between an upper electrode and a lower electrode installed above and below the semiconductor substrate, exposing the semiconductor substrate to the plasma, and performing a predetermined processing;
A semiconductor device comprising: a step of stopping supply of the reaction gas and application of the electric field after the processing step and evacuating the processing chamber from a vacuum exhaust unit provided in the exhaust port and the shower head; Device manufacturing method. 5. The semiconductor device manufacturing method according to claim 4, wherein an inert gas is simultaneously supplied from the shower head in the step of evacuating the processing chamber from a vacuum exhaust means provided in the exhaust port and the shower head. Method. The method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, wherein the processing step is either dry etching or thin film deposition.

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